Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Henry Ward Ranger
Morning in the Village

$3,400
£2,581.70
€2,952.37
CA$4,750.29
A$5,283.36
CHF 2,758.81
MX$64,292.91
NOK 35,234.19
SEK 33,043.45
DKK 22,034.65
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Henry Ward Ranger American, 1858-1915 Morning In the Village Oil on Academy Board 12 by 16 in, w/ frame 19 ¼ by 23 ¼ in Signed lower right A key person in the establishment of the Old Lyme, Connecticut art colony in 1899, Henry Ward Ranger is regarded as the leader of the Tonalist movement in America and was a leading painter in this country in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. He was born in Geneseo and raised in Syracuse, New York, and in 1873, enrolled in the College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University, where his father was a professor of photography and drawing. Two years later, he became a re-toucher of paintings in his father's studio and did not earn a college degree. He also spent much time in New York City, where he was a writer of music criticism and visited galleries, where he had his first exposure to French Barbizon painting. During much of the 1880s, he painted watercolors of marine subjects, and exhibited those in New York City, Boston, and Paris. As a student in France, he became greatly interested in the Barbizon School of painters, and then a trip to The Hague, Holland, was even more influential when he met a large colony of Dutch painters called "The Hague School", whose emphasis was on Realism and Tonalism. Their soft, Atmospheric and Tonalist style of sombre colors seemed to suit him. However, his soft colors later became a special problem for anyone trying to restore his paintings as it was difficult to distinguish original color from soil on canvases. He did his sketches "en plein air" but finished his paintings in his studio and often exhibited his sketches and paintings together. In 1885, Ranger moved to New York City and took up easel painting increasingly favoring oils over watercolors. In 1892, he had a one-man exhibition at the Knoedler Galleries in New York City. Many of his works in that show were forest interiors and tree studies. Gradually his palette lightened with color and luminosity suggesting the influence of George Inness. In the summer of 1899, Ranger discovered Florence Griswold's boardinghouse in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and he returned in the summer of 1900. With his influence and the friendship of Florence Griswold, he became the leader of the artists' colony of Old Lyme, "an American version of Barbizon" (Lowrey 162) for three years. However, the prevalent style changed to Impressionism with the 1903 arrival of Childe Hassam. He became disenchanted with painting at Old Lyme with the arrival of Childe Hassam in 1903 and the subsequent influence of his Impressionist style. In protest of the plein-air, fast painting, and lightened palette and abstraction of these Impressionists, Ranger, in 1905, moved farther down the coast to Noank, Connecticut near the mouth of the Mystic River. Like many of his associates, he also maintained a studio in New York City where he was very prominent and often lectured and wrote about art and took an active part in the art community. He was a member of the National Academy of Design and the National Arts Club, and he wrote articles about art that were published. When Henry Ward Ranger died in 1916, he was a childless widower and left his estate to the National Academy of Design to establish the Ranger Fund whose income was to purchase the works of living American artists beyond the age of forty-five.
  • Creator:
    Henry Ward Ranger (1858 - 1916, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 19.25 in (48.9 cm)Width: 23.25 in (59.06 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    19 ¼ by 23 ¼ inPrice: $3,400
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Sheffield, MA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 015661stDibs: LU700315922622

More From This Seller

View All
Farm in Autumn
Located in Sheffield, MA
Einar William Bogh Danish, 1877-1938 Farm in Autumn Oil on canvas 16 by 18 in, w/ frame 22 ⅝ by 24 ¾ in Signed lower right Painter in Esbonderup and Copenhagen, studied at the Kris...
Category

Early 20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Spring Landscape
By George Laurence Nelson
Located in Sheffield, MA
George Laurence Nelson American, 1887-1978 Spring Landscape Oil on canvas 20 ⅛ by 24 ⅛ in, w/ frame 28 by 32 in Signed and dated 1912 lower right George Laurence Nelson was born in...
Category

1910s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

French Countryside
Located in Sheffield, MA
Charles Charlay-Pompon French, 1854-1914 French Countryside Oil on canvas Signed lower right 11 by 21 in. w/frame 16 ½ by 26 ½ in. Charles Charl...
Category

1880s Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Brittany
Located in Sheffield, MA
Edward Francis Rook American, 1870-1960 Brittany Oil on Canvas 30 by 30 in. W/frame 38 by 38 in. Signed lower left Circa, 1898-1900 Rook, born in New York City on September 21, 1870, became one of the most original impressionists at Old Lyme. First he was a student of Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian.  Life started out to be rather promising for Rook, around the turn of the century.  He exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, both in 1898, when his harbor scene, entitled Pearl Clouds — Moonlight was reproduced in International Studio, in April.  In addition, the PAFA presented him with the Temple Gold Medal for Deserted Street, Moonlight, which the Academy purchased.  Three years later, Rook was awarded a bronze medal at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, where he exhibited three landscapes.  Caffin (1902, p. xxxvi) praised the artist's "translucent quality of color," which suggests a study of color theory.  Also in 1901, Rook married Edith Sone.  For most of 1902, the Rooks were in Mexico. Rook came to Old Lyme in October of 1903.  The date is significant because Childe Hassam was also there that month.  Hassam would more or less re-orient the artists' colony from Tonalism to impressionism.  Rook would move there permanently two years later.  He took two medals at the St. Louis Universal Exposition (1904) where his landscapes from the Mexican trip were displayed.  More awards followed: a silver medal at the International Fine Arts Exposition in Buenos Aires, 1910, a gold medal at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915,  a Corcoran Bronze Medal, and a William A. Clark Award in 1919 for Peonies.   By 1924, the artist was made a National Academician.  Despite all these awards and recognition, Rook did little in the way of selling his art and reportedly, his prices were too high.  His paintings were handled by Macbeth and Grand Central Art Galleries. Rook was active in Old Lyme's art community.  As stated above, he would have met Hassam that October in 1903 but Willard Metcalf had departed at the end of the summer.  As several writers have explained (Connecticut and American Impressionism, 1980, p. 123), Hassam "was the catalyst around whom [impressionism] coalesced."   Rook's niece, Virginia Rook Garver, who happened to be the grand-niece of Hassam, confirmed that Rook and Hassam knew each other in Europe — before they went to Old Lyme (Fischer, 1987, p. 19).  Rook was one of the relatively young painters to come to Old Lyme, along with Gifford Beal, William Chadwick, and Robert Nisbet, on the wave of impressionism, initiated there by Hassam and Metcalf.  Old Lyme became a center of American impressionism, and as Donelson F. Hoopes remarked, "under Hassam, the shoreline of Connecticut became a kind of Giverny of America."  Among Ranger's group, palettes started to become lighter, except those of the most determined tonalists.  Ranger himself, perhaps admitting defeat, moved to Noank in 1904.  Rook is best known for his views of Bradbury's Mill, which was soon called Rook's Mill, owing to the painter's many versions of the scene.  One, called Swirling Waters, dated ca. 1917, is in the Lyme Historical Society.  Even more famous is Rook's Laurel, dated between 1905 and 1910 (Florence Griswold Museum), in which a profuse laurel bush (the state flower), is set off by a spectacular Constable-like background.  But Swirling Waters could never be confused with Constable, with its violent brushwork, impasto-layered water, and bright, almost chalky, plein-air palette.  Gerdts (1984, p. 226) compares the paintings of Walter...
Category

1890s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Afternoon In the Garden
Located in Sheffield, MA
American School American, 19th century Afternoon In the Garden Oil on canvas 8 ¼ by 18 in, w/ frame 13 ¼ by 23 ½ in
Category

19th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Rue de Village et Maisons
By Paul-Élie Gernez
Located in Sheffield, MA
Paul-Élie Gernez French, 1888-1948 Rue de Village et Maisons Oil on Canvas 23 ¾ by 28 ¾ in, w/ frame 34 ½ by 39 ½ in Signed lower right Paul-Élie Gernez (1888–1948) was a French pa...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

19th Century Oil - Morning At The Farmstead
Located in Corsham, GB
Unsigned. Presented in a gilt effect wooden frame. On canvas.
Category

19th Century Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Continental School Early 20th Century Oil - Edge of the Village
Located in Corsham, GB
A striking gestural work in oil showing a line of weathered houses, standing firm at the side of a quiet country road. Presented in an attractive giltwood frame. Illegibly signed to ...
Category

20th Century Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Early 20th Century Oil - The Village Street
Located in Corsham, GB
A charming impressionist study of a quiet village street. The artist uses a muted colour palette to capture the lonely street after sunset. Unsigned. Pre...
Category

Early 20th Century Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

M.J. Rundell - 20th Century Oil, A Walk Through The Village
Located in Corsham, GB
Well presented in a dark vintage frame with gilt detail. Signed. On canvas on stretchers.
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

(Untitled) Dramatic Impressionist Landscape
Located in San Francisco, CA
Not a light and fluffy work, this dramatic impressionist landscape of a European village scene shortly after rainfall captures the moment when the sunshine is just breaking through a...
Category

Early 20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Continental School Early 20th Century Oil - A Winter Street Scene
Located in Corsham, GB
This charming early 20th century painting depicts a quaint village street lined with rustic buildings, dominated by a prominent church spire in the background. Unsigned. Well present...
Category

20th Century Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil